AMS Health Sciences, an Oklahoma City-based marketer of diet and health aids, is seeking bankruptcy protection while it challenges a nearly $1 million jury award that the company concedes it cannot pay. A jury last month ordered AMS to pay $985,000 to the former owner of Heartland Cup, a Pontotoc County Styrofoam cup plant that AMS bought in 2005.
The jury found AMS violated various agreements with Truett McCarty, the controlling shareholder of the cup company. AMS paid McCarty $200,000 and gave him $200,000 shares of its common stock in exchange for 83 percent of the Heartland Cup.
On Thursday, AMS filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection while the company pursues and appeal of the judgment based on "approximately 19 substantive points of error that it believes occurred in the trial," according to an AMS statement issued late Thursday.
AMS said McCarty refused to negotiate a settlement with the company although he is aware that the business cannot afford to pay the judgment, the statement said.
